Exclusive: Economic Laws Practice (ELP) has hired former KPMG senior manager Ajit Tolani as its first associate partner in Pune, while promoting Aqeel Sheerazi and Ritesh Kanodia to associate partnership in Mumbai.

Exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI) is to take 20 lawyers on secondment from law firms to help it regulate transactional law practice better, said BCI chairman Gopal Subramanium and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) chairman Lalit Bhasin on Friday.

Exclusive: SN Gupta & Co has rebranded its transactional practice to SNG & Partners, shifted into new Delhi corporate offices and has hired former Ashurst India office heads Ashok Mubayi and Preet Malik as senior advisers to build up the firm’s nuclear practice.

Exclusive: Vaish Associates Advocates has promoted principal associate and chartered accountant Rohit Jain to partnership in Delhi’s direct tax practice one year after his law graduation.

Exclusive: Trilegal Delhi lawyers Harsh Pais and Yogesh Singh were elevated to the firm’s salaried partnership, as the firm overshot its fee-earner bonus budget after having instituted a new system.

Exclusive: Bhasin & Co has hired retired Slaughter and May partner, former International Bar Association (IBA) president and ex English-county cricketer Francis Neate as a part-time senior cricket & BD consultant and to shore up the firm’s cricket team next season.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co has internally promoted four lawyers to equity partner level, while also adding three associate partners in the now finalised career rung.

Exclusive: Platinum Partners has promoted Mumbai senior associate Yashasvi Mohanram to its partnership, who joined the firm last year from White & Case Singapore.

Exclusive: DSK Legal is parting ways with Delhi partners Gopika Pant and Piyoosh Gupta over strategic differences on future growth, with one more lateral partner set to join the firm in its new larger Delhi office space only several weeks after hiring a team 15 lawyers.

Bhasin & Co managing partner and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) president Lalit Bhasin has vowed to safeguard “freedom of expression” and “promote arts” as the newly-appointed chairman of the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.

Linklaters best-friend firm Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) has promoted banking and finance managing associate Sonali Mahapatra to its partnership to take its ranks of partners back up to six.

Exclusive: Vidhii Partners has continued on its expansion drive and is set to start up a Kolkata office in May with the hire of Paras Kuhad Associates senior associate Deepti Mohan as a partner.

DSK Legal will merge with 15-lawyer Bangalore litigation and real estate firm AKS Law Associates on 1 April, hoping also to ramp up the corporate offering to South India.

Exclusive: M Dhruva & Partners (MDP) has hired former J Sagar Associates (JSA) senior associate Dipali Sarvaiya Sheth as a corporate partner to edge towards full-service law firm status.

Khaitan & Co’s Mumbai office celebrated International Women’s Day today with ceremonial cake cuttings, festive decorations, readings and an internal women-only email list, also allowing all female staff to leave the office at 330pm today.

The writ petition against 31 foreign law firms in Chennai has been adjourned to 19 April following the Bar Council of India (BCI) having failed to hold a meeting to discuss the legal position of foreign lawyers.

Dr Vidya Sagar, the senior partner and founder of one of India’s largest intellectual property (IP) firms Remfry and Sagar, passed away on 27 February at the age of 85 leaving behind a legacy unparalled in the field of IP laws.

Exclusive: Law firms’ litigation associates could find themselves liable to have to charge service tax to their law firms and account for it to the Revenue under the Budget’s new service tax rules that apply to individuals representing businesses in courts or tribunals.

Exclusive: Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) chairman Lalit Bhasin has condemned the expanded service tax rules on law firms, saying that SILF and other law firms would file a new writ petition against the changes while the existing writ petition remained pending in the Bombay High Court.

Paras Kuhad & Associates (PKA) Delhi disputes partner Ravi Prakash has joined DSK Legal with a team of 14 lawyers, almost doubling the size of DSK’s Delhi outpost.